Interlake High School Graduation
Virtual Commencement Ceremony

CONGRATULATIONS
TO THE CLASS OF 2020

BSD Students, Alumni, Teachers, Community Members, Staff & Parents: Sign Letter to Demand Changes in Curriculum to Address Systemic Racism

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WRITTEN BY PRIYANKA MUKHARA

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By filling out this form, your name will be added to the letter attached below. This form will stay open until we reach the 5,000 signatory goal. We will send the letter with everyone's signatures to the BSD Superintendent, members of the Bellevue School District Board, and the principals of each school in the BSD.

Dear Superintendent Duran, Board Members of the Bellevue School District, and BSD Principals,

We write to you as BSD students, alumni, teachers, and staff. We write to respectfully insist that the BSD (i) crafts a comprehensive plan of curricula to address systemic racism, police brutality, and privilege at all levels of education; (ii) develops that plan with the Bellevue community; and (iii) implements the updated curricula by the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year.

As you are aware, major protests have broken out across the country, and your students are participating in them after watching a policeman’s videotaped murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The American people are heartbroken and angry at the loss of another Black life at the hands of the police, and they are speaking up powerfully.

However, conversations and education about endemic racism must not only take place in the streets. America’s school districts, including the BSD, have a responsibility to examine the roles that privilege and bias play within their walls. In the BSD, Black and brown youth make up a sizable portion of the student body. Accordingly, all students should be encouraged to examine and question their own role in supporting structural racism, and the ways in which it benefits the majority of the student body.

The BSD has the power and responsibility to broaden students’ understanding of the world. And it must. The BSD takes pride in preparing the next generation of leaders, and those leaders must understand how far our country is from racial equity and equality.

In Superintendent Duran’s email to the BSD community addressing George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protests, he writes, “In this regard, we must have courageous conversations about race and deeply examine, identify, and remove barriers that create systemic inequity in any aspect of our school community.”

Now, we are asking to see the products of these courageous conversations enacted through visible and concrete methods.

In order to do so, we created a preliminary list of items we would like to see realized in our classrooms. Although this list is not exhaustive, we are asking that you take these ideas into consideration and release updated standards across all classrooms and grade levels.

Teach the history of redlining, racist banking policies, and wealth disparities behind the concepts of privilege and use the appropriate terminology and theories to discuss race – such as “white privilege,” “identity,” “intersectionality,” etc.

Learn to unlearn internalized negative messages about Black or brown people; encourage students to question their own preconceived notions and implicit biases.

Insist upon discussing current events as they relate to course material. For example, teachers may ask students to historically contextualize the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Black communities.

Critically evaluate textbooks and their role in perpetuating single narratives and evaluate their white-leaning bias. Teach media literacy and the impact of journalistic framing on an event.

In History classes, acknowledge the multitude of perspectives in history. Then, teach the history of minority groups from their perspectives by using primary sources and accounts.

In English classes, update syllabi to include more literature by African American and authors of color; create a 1-day course that discusses the historical use of racial slurs in literature by non-POC.

Encourage STEM classes to discuss racism and discrimination in respective fields; highlight contributions of people of color.

Invite activist groups and non-profit organizations dedicated to serving marginalized communities to the BSD to supplement curricular and extracurricular learning.

We would like to thank and recognize the teachers already engaging in racially inclusive teaching. However, understand that these actions should no longer be optional. We call on the BSD to develop and implement concrete curriculum requirements to address communities of color and racial inequity across all schools and grade levels.

At this moment in time, we can no longer be satisfied with saying the right thing; we must strive to be doing the right thing. Words must be accompanied by sustained action. We are counting on you to take this on with us and to help us enact lasting change, for the betterment of not only the BSD, but for the lives of millions of Black and brown youth across America.